A 'city-to-city' approach

CITYkeys project involved cities from the first day to deliver a performance measurement framework adapted to and usable by cities. The five city partners (Rotterdam, Tampere, Vienna, Zagreb and Zaragoza) played a central role in analysing and evaluating the applicability of the data sets and collection tool in different decision-making processes. Additional cities also contributed to the testing phase to ensure that the framework responds to cities' needs.

Contributing cities had a central role in providing the expertise in policy-making and how KPIs should guide most efficiently towards smart and sustainable solutions in cities decision-making. Citizens' organisations also had the possibility to provide input through stakeholders' meetings in the five partner cities.

After the impact and benefits of the decision making process had been tested, analysed and evaluated, recommendations were made for an efficient use of the framework.

Results:

Intended users of framework are cities. One of the key requirements was for the CITYkeys Performance Measurement Framework to be applicable in different urban contexts. Two 'user handbooks' have been published to help practitioners and experts create and run a performance measurement system using CITYkeys framework of indicators.

The final stage of the project has been dedicated to collecting the cities' experience, views and recommendations, derived from their participation in the project. A survey and a series of interviews were conducted in order to collect and process the cities' relevant expectations and concerns, and to identify the framework's most likely users and possible areas of application.

This handbook intends to highlight and share with city representatives the benefits of the developed framework; share the insights gained during the project; draw attention to the potential areas of application; and identify strenghts and shortcomings.

This handbook gathers material from the whole CITYkeys project and its deliverables and aspires to the entry point to the work and the more technical deliverables of CITYkeys.

It explains why a city should have performance measurement framework and process in places; describes how such a framework can be built and used; gives recommendations on policy and decision making issues; identifies business models related to performance measurement ; and explains how indices and benchmarking work.